French Silent Letters and Pronunciation

One of the difficulties with French pronunciation is that it is not a phonetic language. A phonetic language (e.g., Spanish, Arabic) is one in which each letter has a single corresponding sound; in other words, spelling matches the pronunciation. Other languages, like French and English, are not phonetic: they have letters that can be pronounced in different ways or sometimes not at all. 

There are three categories of silent letters in French.

• E muet / Elision
• H muet and aspiré
• Final consonants

This lesson will focus on final consonants; follow the links to the right for detailed explanations of the silent letters E and H.

The basic rule of French pronunciation is that the final consonant is not pronounced, but there are many exceptions, which are what this lesson is about.*

The letters B, C, F, K, L, Q, and R are usually pronounced at the end of a word. Tip: Since B, K, and Q are rare as final consonants, some people find it helpful to use the word CaReFuL to remember the most common of the usually pronounced final consonants.

The other French consonants are usually silent at the end of a word, with some exceptions. Tip: Many exceptions are proper names or words borrowed from other languages.

Note: The words plus and tout have their own pronunciation rules.